Why the difference in the laws of ritual purity between the birth of males and females?

My question is on the subject of cleanness of a mother after the birth of a male or female (Leviticus 12). The woman is unclean for seven days after a male birth, and after the birth of a female the mother is unclean for fourteen days. Why is there a difference between the birth of males and females?

Answer:

You write the word "cleanliness," when really it is "ritual purity." A woman's "impurity," or "tumah" in Hebrew, during her menstruation is a built-in component of her natural monthly cycle. Her status of "impurity" demonstrates her descent from a peak level of holiness, when she had the ability to conceive a precious new life through her union with her husband.

The status of "tumah" is not meant to imply sinfulness, degradation or inferiority. On the contrary, it emphasizes, in particular, the great level of holiness inherent in woman's G‑dly power to create and nurture a new life within her body, and the great holiness of a husband and wife's union, in general. Since a woman possesses this lofty potential, she, also bears the possibility of its void; hence her status as tameh, ritually impure. Since she experienced "the touch of death," so to speak, with the loss of potential life, as reflected by her menstruation, she enters this status of "impure."

After having given birth to a baby boy, a woman must wait a minimum of seven days before beginning her pure days; while after a baby girl is born, she must wait a minimum of fourteen days. Since the female child inherently carries a higher degree of holiness, due to her own biological, life creating capability, a greater void, or tumah, remains after her birth. Thus, the greater tumah after a baby girl's birth reflects her greater capacity for holiness (due to her creative powers) and necessitates the longer wait to remove this ritual impurity.

So, baby girls have a greater capacity for holiness than baby boys? Which in return, makes baby boys have less capacity for holiness?
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Yam ErezKeturaJuly 2, 2018

But who's blood-free seven or even 14 days after giving birth? It's redundant.
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eliseJuly 13, 2017

If a woman has a blood flow after birth, should she stay 5 days before thé 7 days of uncleaness ?
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Yam ErezKeturaDecember 21, 2018

in response to elise:

period of *niddah* post-partum
What is this 5 days and 7 days? It might have been different in ancient times (yes, this is a possibility), but these days we bleed for weeks post-partum.
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JudaFebruary 15, 2017

Re: How did they know...
The question of how they knew this or that is only valid if the Torah were a manmade document. But if we believe that it is a divine document, then it becomes a moot point...
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AnonymousFebruary 9, 2017

How did they know, way back then, that a woman has an egg, and that menstruation happens after ovulation to shed the egg and lining? Are there any references to that? The only reference I can find at all to women's role in reproduction is the phrase "your seed and her seed" (Genesis 3:15), but that is never mentioned again.
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Jenny USA February 4, 2016

But what about...
... Intercourse? The actual act of intercourse renders both men and women ritualistically impure until evening. If impurity comes from a supposed loss of ability to procreate while menstruating, why then would the actual act of potential procreation make one ritually impure? While I appreciate the author's pro-female stance, this answer just doesn't make sense.
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Tyana Novi CaliforniaJuly 15, 2015

If the uncleanness was meant to mean holiness, why was such an awful word used? In some translations, the word even comes out impure. Not getting it now or ever.
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Devinny, ny, usaMarch 30, 2011

40+
"Since she experienced "the touch of death," so to speak, with the loss of potential life, as reflected by her menstruation, she enters this status of "impure." "Then does that mean that once women can no longer have children and lose that spiritual potential to create life, they are always tumai??
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John FairlambPMB, South AfricaAugust 8, 2007

Thanks for the clarification
I found this perspective really wonderful. (Ignorant) People are tempted to jump to the conclusion that it was because Jewish society is patriachal, and thus, to put it bluntly, they are Chauvanistic. "Boys are "more pure" than girls"

If it were not written in the Bible, I would have assumed that that was the case, but because I know that it is in the Bible, and G-d is not chauvanistic, I knew that could not be the reason for this difference. Genesis 1:27 says "male and female, He created them" - thus, from the beginning, G-d saw men and women as equal - but that has never meant identical.
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AnonymousMay 8, 2007

Souce please
That is a beautiful explanation. Is it written anywhere else, or is this the author's original explanation?
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j.April 27, 2007

i have also read an explanation that since boys have their bris on the eighth day of life, perhaps the time period was shortened for a boy to seven days from fourteen out of compassion so that the mother and father could celebrate the bris
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Ellen Brooklyn, NYApril 26, 2007

Female vs. Male
It's refreshing to read this explanation, and it reminds me of how I felt when I gave birth to my first daughter. I had several impressions. One of them was that by having her, the transmission of a Jewish soul is assured. (given that she will be in a situation where she will have children.) I thought of her as a little egg carrier. So when I read that Jewish females have more holiness BECAUSE of our very ability to grow and give birth to new life, it's such a positive thing.

There needs to be a way to emphatically make this clear to women. It's way to easy to buy into the "male-supremacy" point of view.
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